Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Tactica: Assaulting Vehicles


I have found that Assaulting Vehicles is generally the best way to deal with them. Through much game experience, I have noticed that vehicles are extremely difficult to destroy through shooting. Even the weapons that are praised as "Anti-Tank" have difficulty finishing the job.

However, assaulting vehicles has proved to be more fruitful. The reasons being as follows:

*You will generally get more dice to roll. Even a tactical squad using Krak grenades gets 10 attacks, whereas the meltagun, lascannon, or missile launcher in the squad only has one shot. Since I 'grew up' in 40k playing Imperial Guard, I always believe that more dice is better. I have not even mentioned the fact that you get your full attacks when not using grenades. We all know that more dice rolled to hit means more dice rolled for armor penetration. More dice for armor penetration means more dice for the damage table.

*Your attacks are directed at the rear armor. I find it easier to reach the front of a vehicle for an assault against the rear armor, rather than manuevering behind a vehicle for shooting attacks. My opponents are generally very careful about where they point there vulnerable rear armor.

So, I encourage you to assault those vehicles. Especially if you can catch them driving at combat speed or stationary. If the vehicle didn't move, you can't miss.

Since marines come standard with Krak grenades, do it. According to the new Codex, the regular guardsmen comes standard with Frag grenades. So, the lowly guardsmen is not too weak for the AV 10.

After considering this further, the guard army majors on firepower. So, you guard players may do well without having to resort to assaulting vehicles.

7 comments:

brent said...

Thanks for the tip ^^

FoxPhoenix135 said...

I totally agree... assaulting vehicles is the way to go...

Minor correction though. The new Guard codex does not grant Krak grenades to standard guardsman, but it does grant Frag grenades. It almost sounds like you meant to say frag, because you mention armor 10. Probably a typo.

Back on subject though- I like to equip my melta-vets with demolitions for this very reason. Meltabombs for every vet is a scary proposition for any vehicle-user.

Raptor1313 said...

I think assaulting vehicles should certainly be a tool in your army's toolbox. Marines get those Krak Grenades, so if you can get the assault off and it's an AV10 rear vehicle? Not bad.

On the other hand, the eenmy can just move the vehicle to counter it. If they can't get out of assault range, they can either reduce you to 4+ to hit, or 6+ to hit. 10 Kraks on a moving vehicle = 5 hits = 1.6 pens. Not bad, but not super-reliable.

On the other hand, delivering your marines into assaulting vehicles may or may not be a viable option. Guard tanks, for example, generally won't come to you unless it's an expendable Chimera.

Then again, marines in general play a shorter-ranged game. You might have a few long-ranged guns sitting on your objective, but that's it.

If you haven't given them a shot in your army, seriously, consider multi-melta/heavy flamer speeders, and melta weapons in tactical squads or on Vet Assault Squads.

However, if you're marines and your primary method of killing vehicles is assaulting them...I urge you to reconsider, and bring more melta weapons on mobile platforms. 2-3 MM/HF Speeders for Blood Angels cost you 150-225, and you'll be amazed at what they do for you. Barring that, Tactical SQuads can take a multi-melta, roll up, and fire it out of the top of their Rhino.

You're definitely correct about krak grenades being an option, but I highly suggest getting some mobile meltas on marine vehicles, and consider them in tactical squads that you might advance with.

Pacific said...

There are some great points here! I think you are right that 5th edition seems to favour the tank assault, especially against IG tanks with their nasty front but puny rear armour.

Regarding the movement of vehicles, its important to remember that the vehicle must actually move a distance to benefit from the save, specifically for the 6 - 12" bracket; it cannot simply reverse back and forwards on the spot! Admitedly many might not want to do this as you forfeit firing opportunities, but it might well happen in some situations.

I agree that the krak grenades as standard for marines are now a useful tool, rather than a kind of irrelevant extra as they have been in the past (or since 2nd ed really). I might well consider the 5 points to include a melta bomb though, just for that added punch when you can envisage the unit getting up close and personal with a vehicle.

A negative point which I feel is important is that its vital you take out the tank when you assault, specifically units such as IG tanks with big 2+ kill pie plate templates which will punish a failure horribly!

Feldmarshal Goehring said...

More great comments from everyone.

I edited the post to fix the error concerning Guard grenades.

I added the Attack Bikes in order to get mobile Multimelta. But I have been less than impressed with the results.

Other Melta includes:
Dante's Perdition Pistol
Furioso's Meltagun
Tactical Squad's Meltagun

My Tactical Squad also has a Lascannon.

Raptor1313 said...

The other problem with assaulting tanks is that if you do pop it, you also leave yourself bunched up for template weapons.

For sake of curiosity, what exactly is the list? How many meltaguns to you have, and how many melta bikes?

Feldmarshal Goehring said...

I listed all the meltaguns in the previous post, plus 2 attack bikes with multi-melta.

The list can be found here:
http://pitchedbattle.blogspot.com/2009/07/attack-bikes-or-land-raider.html

Just copy and paste in your address bar, please. It would be easier than me trying to type it in here.